Andi's Pasta Salad W/blue Cheese,broccoli And Grapes

Total Time: 40 mins Preparation Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 10
• 1 (12 -16 ounce) package rotini pasta, cooked and drained, cooled completely (corkscrew shape)
• 1 bunch fresh broccoli, florets only, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups seedless grapes or 2 cups red seedless grapes, halved, approximately, to taste
• 1 (15 ounce) can black olives (small or medium size)
• 1/2-1 cup red onion, sliced thinly or finely chopped
• 1 1/2-2 cups chunky-style bleu cheese salad dressing, approximately to taste, do not use fat free (such as marie's)
• salt, to taste
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• crumbled cooked bacon or sunflower seeds, optional garnish

Recipe

• 1 combine pasta, broccoli, grapes, olives, and red onion in a large bowl.
• 2 pour all of the blue cheese dressing into a separate mixing bowl.
• 3 add enough of the reserved canning liquid from the olives to thin the dressing enough to your liking (*note:ifyou forgot to save the canning liquid, just use some cold water)- you may not need the full 1/4 cup, or you may need a little more- it depends upon how thick the bleu cheese dressing you purchased was.
• 4 the idea is to make the dressing thin enough to evenly coat all of the veggies& pasta lightly.
• 5 mix thinned dressing with the veggie& pasta mixture and toss to coat well.
• 6 chill at least 2 hours or overnight to allow pasta to absorb the dressing a bit- the chilled salad will appear dry.
• 7 taste for seasonings- you may add a little salt& pepper if desired, but it may not be necessary depending upon the dressing brand you selected.
• 8 toss salad again before serving.
• 9 garnish if desired.
• 10 garnishing ideas: if you like a little crunch, please feel free to garnish this with some crumbled cooked bacon or some sunflower seeds- sometimes i have even stirred them into the salad itself.